NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: COLLEGE POINT

By JIM O'GRADY

Published: March 14, 2004

Jay Chung, a wholesaler of desk clocks and snow globes on West 27th Street near the Avenue of the Americas, believes that he and his business partner have found his industry's promised land in northern Queens. It is 26 acres of soggy soil that was once Flushing Airport and is now part of the College Point Corporate Park, a low-lying area convenient to several expressways and La Guardia Airport.

Mr. Chung and 52 other wholesalers have proposed to spend $175 million to construct a two-story, 585,000-square-foot warehouse complex that could be a center for 180 wholesale businesses. In one swoop, the project would shift New York's traditional wholesale district, around Broadway between 25th and 35th Streets in Manhattan, to Queens. And as far as Mr. Chung is concerned, the move cannot come soon enough.

''The rent is sky-high and rising and traffic every day here is worse,'' he said from his office in Manhattan. ''A lot of buyers have difficulty parking, and you need to park to buy.'' In addition, six residential high-rises have sprung up in the district in recent years, and many of the residents are not happy about living among the cluster of wholesale businesses.

A few weeks ago, the city's Economic Development Corporation chose the warehouse proposal from among 12 plans to develop the site, in part because the agency believes that the center would bring 600 existing jobs to the area and create 420 new jobs over five to seven years.

But some local civic groups and elected officials are unhappy about not having had a chance to evaluate the various proposals. ''We never saw them,'' said Adrian Joyce, a member of Community Board 7. ''The mayor spoke out prematurely when he said he was going to do this.''

Mr. Joyce said he was concerned that local roads would be overwhelmed by truck traffic and that savvy shoppers might go to the warehouse to buy items at wholesale prices, bringing even more traffic. ''Who's going to police them to stop them from selling retail?'' he asked.

In response, Mr. Chung said that his company, College Point Wholesale Distribution Development, would turn away ordinary shoppers and allow in only buyers with federal tax ID's for retail businesses.

Janel Patterson, an Economic Development Corporation spokeswoman, said the project would provide other benefits, like the $2 million Mr. Chung's company has committed to build a nature trail around the site's perimeter. The city has also set aside $8 million to improve local traffic flow by repairing and perhaps extending nearby Linden Place, which is closed because of chronic flooding.

But Mr. Joyce and his allies remain opposed. They plan more meetings and -- although Ms. Patterson said her agency does not customarily divulge unchosen proposals -- they hope to learn about them so they can be presented in the court of public opinion.

''This is not a dead issue,'' Mr. Joyce said. JIM O'GRADY

Photo: Jay Chung, a wholesaler, cannot relocate from his current place on West 27th Street fast enough. (Photo by Diane Bondareff for The New York Times)